As far as graphics are concerned, Star Trek: Conquest isn't the most high definition game out there, but then again, based on the type of game it is, it doesn't need a lot of visual bells and whistles. Most of the game is spent outside of combat and either on the Galactic Map or a System Screen. When you aren't in combat, everything is 2D and sprite-based. This method shows the player exactly what he or she needs to know in order to make the tactical decisions that are required of them.

While slightly different, the combat view of the ships have a more 3D feel to them, but the game is still a top-down shooter, so you can't really get away from the overall flat feeling you get while watching or playing Star Trek: Conquest.

The music feels appropriately Star Trek-ish and seems to emulate the audio-feel of the Next Generation era shows. For the most part, the sound stays low and quiet adding just the right atmosphere. In fact, the only times I think I saw any real issue with the game's sound was after a round when I earned myself both an upgrade and enough research to create a super weapon. The sound clip of the computer telling me I could obtain a super weapon would play for about a second and then the upgrade voice would start and the two voices would play over each other in a somewhat aggravating manner.

Star Trek: Conquest is a turn-based strategy game. The developers attempted to break it out of that genre a little by adding in a shooter aspect when you go into battle, but I found that particular aspect to be harder to handle than the strategy part and it constantly tore me away from my strategic mindset. Thankfully, there is the ability to simulate those battles, but more on that later. In Conquest, you will be able to control the Federation, Klingon, Cardassians, Romulans, Dominion and Breen as they attempt to take over the other races and dominate the galaxy.

There are two gameplay modes, Campaign and Skirmish. Campaign Mode lets you and up to three opposing races vie for systems on a Galactic Map. You control a system if you have cleared it of all enemy structures and ships and you have at least one structure or ship in play there. A race is defeated when they no longer have any systems under their control and all of their fleets have been destroyed.

Basically, a turn happens like this. You move your fleets to different systems, if there are opposing forces in that system; the two sides fight with whatever resources they have in that system. You can also spend your money, which you earn via mining colonies, to create new structures (starbases, research facilities and mining colonies), or new ships for a fleet. If you don't have any fleets, you can hire one of your three admirals and create a fleet. Each admiral has a different strength. Some are better at attacking, some defending and some at maneuvering. You can have at most three fleets/admirals in play and each admiral can control up to seven ships in his fleet.

These ships are divided into three categories: scouts, cruisers and dreadnaughts, and each ship type also has its specialty. While scouts are cheap, they move fast but don't necessarily do a lot of damage and Dreadnaughts, the most expensive, are exactly the opposite. They are slower, but have better shields and stronger weapons. Meanwhile, the cruisers are essentially the middle ground between the two extremes.

At the end of each round, your assets are tallied up. Any money you earn based on your mining colonies is collected; any research you've done at the stations goes towards the ability to create a super weapon as well as your upgrade research. These super weapons are devices you can create, like The Genesis Device or a Sub Space Disruptor, and use on a system. Each race has a different mix of these weapons available, but they all fit into three categories: healing, attacking and defending. Meanwhile, the research upgrades are used to reduce the cost of admirals, increase the efficiency of your facilities or make the ships in your fleet more formidable weapons. Effectively setting up your income and research is just as big a part of this game as the fighting itself, since having a good infrastructure is key to having systems that can withstand enemy attack even when your fleets aren't in that system.

When you do end up in a fight, there are three options you can choose. You can control the ships themselves by flying around the system trying to take out the enemy ships and structures, or you can tell the game to simulate the fight (giving you only the barest controls of aggressiveness) or you can just hit a button and it will tell you how it ended up. I tried the flight controls aspect a few times, but I kept finding it to have very loose controls (even when I upgraded the ships' abilities) and not worth the hassle. Most of the time, I turned the Sim option on and watched the various static sprite ships and stations shoot at each other. It just seemed like I tended to win more skirmishes that way. Skirmish mode is simply the fights themselves. When setting up a skirmish, you decide what type of what ships are in the combat area, and you fight it out.

I have to say, Star Trek: Conquest is not easy by any means. I found each and every victory to be won by fighting tooth and claw to the very end. Most fights left me with only a single admiral and I rarely won the campaigns in any sort of decisive manner. Even when setting the game's difficulty to Easy, I found myself struggling, so I'd have to say, based on toughness, this game isn't really for amateur strategists.

Then there is the other part of the game, the combat. This aspect was hard for a completely different reason. I typically found this mode to be bothersome because I could never seem to control my ships as effectively as I wanted. Even when I had upgraded the ships' maneuverability, speed and handling to their fullest, I still found each ship type to be awkward to control and not worth the hassle.

Star Trek: Conquest's controls while in the Galactic Map aren't all that bad, but there were always some aspects that caused me to fumble. For instance, in order to change the properties of a system (i.e. add ships to the fleet, change the construction, etc.), you tap the (B) button. Meanwhile, selecting (A) on the same screen lets you move your fleet. At least once per turn, I would hit the wrong button and begin to edit the System when I meant to move my fleet or vice versa. It was quite an annoyance.

When fighting in the Arcade mode (not Sim or Instand modes), the Nunchuck's stick is used for steering while you aim with the Wii-mote by pointing it at the ship you want to fire at. The (A) button fires phasers and the (B) fires torpedoes. You can cycle through the ships in your fleet by tapping the (-) and (+) buttons. As I've said several times, the controls in this mode just feel slippery and I felt like I could have done completely without this aspect of the game. Having only Sim and Instant modes wouldn't have detracted from the game as much as the painful Arcade mode does. In this case, more is less.

As a turn-based strategy, Star Trek: Conquest isn't all that bad. I found the enemy A.I. to be a lot harder than I would have liked, and most of the time the game felt very lopsided. I liked the fact that resource gathering, while not completely gone, wasn't as detailed as other games from the genre. Still Conquest is not a strategy game for Star Trek fans, it is a Star Trek game for strategy fans. Novice players in this genre simply need not apply.